SANTA ANA (AP) – Police detectives are having trouble unraveling a nightclub brawl that left a 23-year-old Vietnamese American woman dead because they can’t identify many of the victim’s friends and others won’t talk to them.

Investigators working the death of Kim Pham, 23, outside a Santa Ana hot spot have only identified one of the eight friends who were with her, the Los Angeles Times reported Jan. 26.

Her ex-boyfriend — who may have tried to help her — hasn’t come forward and the one female friend that police have found won’t talk, the paper reported.

Two women have been arrested in Pham’s death and police are seeking a third woman.

Distrust of the government and police runs deep in Orange County’s Vietnamese American community, where many residents are refugees or the children and grandchildren of refugees who fled to the United States during and after the Vietnam War.

Although many younger Vietnamese Americans are thoroughly Westernized, they could be avoiding police on the advice of their parents or out of respect for their concerns, said Police Commander Tim Vu, the highest-ranking Vietnamese American law enforcement officer in Orange County.

“People worry that there will be retaliation,” Vu told the Times. “They don’t know the court system and are intimidated by it.”

Some may believe they could be retaliated against as witnesses — a belief that is hard to counter, Vu said.
Cell phone video shows the Chapman University graduate and aspiring writer getting beaten and stomped as a crowd gathers around.

A reward for information in the case stands at $11,000. The attack occurred on Jan. 18.

“We need to reassure immigrants or potential witnesses that it’s not about them,” he said. “It’s about all the evidence and all other witnesses.”

Pham, of Huntington Beach, was taken off life support last week.

Civic leaders are now reaching out to witnesses through the Vietnamese-language media, stressing they will be treated with respect if they come forward and can meet privately with the police chief or even the mayor.

“Their identities will be protected if they wish,” said Ken Nguyen, a volunteer who acts as Santa Ana’s liaison to the local Vietnamese community.

“These are the things we offered the youths, and so far, they are quiet.” (end)